Web Standards member Molly E. Holzschlag has announced that Firefox has just released a beta verision of FireFox 2

Some of the features mentioned include:

Better feed support
Default open link in new tab rather than new window
Inline spellcheck for form fields
Microsummaries for bookmarks
Support for JavaScript 1.7
Improved security for plugins and extensions
Client-side session and persistent storage
Support for SVG text using svg:textPath

So, lets give it a whirl, folks, and express your thoughts in comments. The good folks at Mozilla will want to know what you think

Using a fast, low-cost fabrication technique that allows inexpensive testing of a wide variety of materials, Cornell researchers have come up with nanoscale resonators — tiny vibrating strings — with the highest quality factor so far obtainable at room temperature for devices so small.
The work is another step toward “laboratory on a chip” applications in which vibrating strings can be used to detect and identify biological molecules. The devices also can be used as very precisely tuned oscillators in radio-frequency circuits, replacing relatively bulky quartz crystals.

When you strike a bell or pluck a guitar string, it will vibrate within a small range of frequencies, centering on what is called the resonant frequency. Quality factor, or Q, refers to how narrow that range will be. It is defined as the ratio of the resonant frequency to the range of frequencies over which resonance occurs. A radio receiver with high-Q circuitry, for example, will be more selective in separating one station from another.Cornell researchers have already used vibrating strings and cantilevers to detect masses as small as a single bacterium or virus. Resonant frequency depends on the mass of a vibrating object (a thick guitar string has a lower pitch than a thin one). If a nanoscale vibrator is coated with antibodies that cause a virus or some other molecule to adhere to it, the change in mass causes a measurable change in frequency. In a high Q nanostring, the researchers say, a small change in mass will produce a much more noticeable shift.

The new nanostrings, made by graduate student Scott Verbridge and colleagues in the laboratories of Harold Craighead, Cornell professor of applied and engineering physics, and Jeevak Parpia, professor of physics, are made of silicon nitride under stress. By controlling the temperature, pressure and other factors as the film is deposited, the experimenters can cause the silicon nitride to be, in effect, stretched.

Congratulations Scott his is a major break thru I can not wait to see a working prototype!

The difficulty of keeping computer chips cool is one of the most immediate challenges for the IT industry. Researchers at IBMs Zurich lab are using nano-scale technologies to make self-contained water-cooling systems that are much smaller and can handle much higher power densities than the air-cooled copper heatsinks in use today.

Nanoscale devices are made of components that measure less than 100nm. A nanometre is equivalent to one billionth of a metre.
Dr Bruno Michel, manager of advanced thermal packaging research at the Zurich lab, said the paste between the chip and the heatsink, called the thermal interface material (TIM), currently accounts for 50 percent of the thermal resistance of chip-cooling systems. The TIM is needed because the silicon chip and the copper heatsink have different thermal expansion coefficients, so they can not be directly joined together.

This is a must read article and make sure to let me know what you think.